Tag: College

It’s definitely been a while since I updated the blog and posted anything. Truth is I’ve been exhausted. After coming back from L.A. two weeks ago, I didn’t really get any solid amount of rest for a long time; I was thrown right back into school and work, had my first big assignment coming up that I needed to work on, and the days felt like they weren’t long enough for me to keep up with everything (let alone have time to unpack my bag from the California trip…).

That Friday, I decided to visit my grandparents for the weekend and drove up to South Salem right after I finished work. It wasn’t too bad of a drive, but my poor baby blue car was almost mauled to death several times by big trucks on the way there. Typical New Jersey traffic. Once my grandma and I had finished dinner that evening, I was so incredibly tired but SO happy I was there and got to spend time with them for the weekend.

It turned out to be a more eventful weekend than I was expecting: the day on Saturday was spent on a long tour of historic mansions along the Hudson River, followed by a nice dinner gathering, and then we went out shopping and had brunch on Sunday before I headed back to NJ. All in all, it was absolutely lovely! But I definitely returned even more tired when I came back to New Brunswick on Sunday night.

This past weekend, however, I had no plans at all. I finally got to sleep in!!! It felt so nice to just relax, get some exercise and studying done, and watch a whole bunch of trashy TV (like, a lot). Coming into this week, I definitely feel more relaxed and energized and back on track. Can’t wait to see what the coming week will hold!

WEEKEND — Knowing that my days of being able to enjoy my weekends without much pressure to do school work are counted, I had another relaxing weekend of prioritizing pleasure over business. I also did a great job procrastinating during the short amount of time that I had actually allotted to studying. Yay me!

On Saturday, I decided to make use of my two season tickets to Rutgers Football and went to the Rutgers vs. Buffalo game with a friend from Gettysburg. Kickoff being at noon, we met up somewhat early in the morning, put some assorted adult beverages in my car, and headed off to the stadium. This was my very first time bringing my own car to a tailgate, let alone one of my first times ever tailgating at all, which all felt really exciting.

Now, there’s a lot to be said about the fun of actually watching a football game and being inside the stadium with all the fans (or in Rutgers’ case, a lack thereof, since most fans usually walk out by the second quarter). But I must say, I honestly think I enjoy tailgating more than I do watching the game afterwards. For any fellow Swedes who might be reading this and who are confused, I would describe tailgating as an intensely American social phenomenon that involves standing around (or sitting in beach chairs) in a parking lot next to one’s car for several hours prior to any sports event. In addition to simply standing or sitting around, there are high levels of consumption of alcohol (a level which is increased dramatically if the stadium doesn’t serve alcohol to patrons, which one can often hear loud complaints about), usually beer (only American brands allowed!) or drinks such as Bloody Marys if it’s early in the morning, and there is also usually grilling of an assortment of classic American foods such as hot dogs, burgers, and anything else unhealthy you can think of. Country music often plays loudly in the background, the source of which is probably someone’s car stereo (which makes you uneasy since either 1) their battery is probably going to die soon or 2) they are severely contributing to pollution if their engine is actually running). Socially, this is a fascinating phenomenon in which Americans are found in their most natural habitat. They can be spotted randomly socializing with any stranger who is wearing a t-shirt or hat with the same (often offensive) sports team logo as they are, forming temporary relationships that are synthesized just from a combination of the influence of alcohol and a shared interest in a sports team. In the same vein, the mere sight of someone who is wearing the opposing team’s logo anywhere on their body, or even a color that could be slightly associated with the opposing team, is widely accepted as legitimate justification for shouting profanity and making foul gestures at that person.

Absolutely amazing, right? I personally love it. Partly because of the generally positive, happy vibe and the beauty of day-drinking without shame, but also because it is so sociologically interesting.

Especially when going to see a team like Rutgers, you’re basically going 95% for the tailgating and only 5% for the actual football. I think knowing that you will be disappointed during the game (which is the case, again, if you’re rooting for a team like Rutgers) makes the tailgating all the more fun and rowdy, because no-one feels as though they have to stay sober in order to be able to pay attention to the game.

All in all, it’s great fun, and I’m happy I got to spend one day this weekend completely immersed in tailgating season!

This morning when I woke up and grabbed my phone off my bedside table (as we millennials do), I got a bit of a shock when today’s date caught my eye. September 20th? Already?!

September 20th means it’s been a total of 4 months since I graduated from college. And I have no idea where all that time went. I suppose it must’ve somehow flown by as I was spending time doing absolutely nothing this summer. And, as if this shocking realization isn’t enough, I have also been receiving heaps of emails from the college inviting me to my class’ first Homecoming Weekend at the end of this week, which is just baffling to me. I have several feelings about this that I’d like to air:

Since when did it become OK to spring the fact that we are all of a sudden “alumni” on us, a mere 4 months after graduation, and invite us to Homecoming? We still have post-traumatic stress from senior year. I feel re-traumatized.

Wouldn’t Homecoming this soon after graduation basically just feel like “going back to school”? How are you even supposed to distinguish between the people who are still in college and the people who just graduated? We all look the same! We’re still the same age, and could still basically be them!

Isn’t the point of graduating that you don’t have to see all the people you dislike from your class on campus anymore? I think the only people who actually go back for Homecoming are a) people who didn’t dislike anyone on campus (seems impossible) or b) people who have gotten old enough that they’ve forgotten who they disliked and for what reasons. Which brings me to:

Homecoming Weekend is for adults who are 20, 30, 40, 50, etc. years out of college, who are reuniting with their class to reminisce about their college years and to judge each others’ successes to figure out who “won” in life and who didn’t. Which is all very nice. Homecoming Weekend should NOT, however, be for recent college graduates who are so unable to cope with the reality of being out in the “adult” world only after a few months that they’ll go to any lengths to feel like they’re still in college (including traveling back to the middle of nowhere-Pennsylvania and attend Homecoming Weekend celebrations).

Perhaps I’m being a little overly judgmental about this whole thing (I mean I definitely am), but I’m mostly just shocked at the sheer amount of time that’s gone by since we graduated. In a way, it feels like it happened so recently; at the same time, however, I feel like I am in a completely different place now than I was 4 months ago. When I graduated, I had no idea of what life would be like for me in this moment that I’m in right now — having completed my first three weeks of grad school. I was just looking forward to a summer of relaxing and figuring out my life before embarking on this next journey (and by journey I mean enslavement to academia). Looking back on it though, I definitely do not regret wanting to take my time over the summer to relax, spend time with the people I care about, and not really do much of anything. I think I would feel a lot more tired and stressed now, even this early in the semester, if I had spent the summer working and not had that time to just be a recent college graduate.

Thinking about all of this made me want to go back and look through my pictures from graduation weekend. I can’t even begin to express what an amazing time it was: having my whole family there all together, celebrating and constantly having a laugh, and seeing the look of pride on everyones’ faces — all of these people who I so greatly admire — when I got my diploma. It was the best weekend ever.